Gracefully, Yasmin Le Bon has lived a life that is comparable to a thriller novel. She has swung her way across to one of the highest-paid models in the world at 19 to find her enduring relationship with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran. It is, above all, a tale of love, struggle, and intense self-discovery about Yasmin.
As she looks back on her past, Yasmin speaks candidly about what has seen her through a mad whirlwind of fame and amongst the brutal realities of a modeling industry. “We’d never have lasted if we’d spent the first 15 years in each other’s pockets; I found it challenging living with someone who’s a very strong personality, finding that middle ground,” she says of her almost four-decade-long marriage to Simon. Even in their heyday, with schedules that were jam-packed, Yasmin insists it was their time apart that cemented their bond.
Her marriage is Yasmin’s sanctuary in a life that can be very cruel. “Simon saved me. Without being in a love bubble with him, God knows what ditch I would have ended up in. I would have had a cracking time and that would have been the end of me. I’d have fallen off a cliff.”
It was not all plain sailing, though. The two had to get used to the fact that the other had a strong personality and was used to different lifestyles. Yasmin laughs when she describes how much readjustment Simon had to do, coming off tour and back into regular day-to-day chores. “He’s used to having everything done for him, then it’s ‘Simon, take the dog out, here are the poo bags.”
Modelling was, to Yasmin, both a launching pad and a battlefield. She soon grew a thick skin and very professional. “Modelling is not a clever place for many people to be. But I quickly developed a thick skin and a really professional code where it was just about the job, it wasn’t about me. Very rarely did rejection affect me.”
But hitting her forties heralded a change in her personal and professional life. “We did everything the wrong way round we were extremely successful very, very young and then it was a question of how do you maintain it?” As the bookings became less frequent, Yasmin found herself grappling with age and self-worth in an industry unkind to those past their prime.
Menopause added another layer of complexity. “I was a sweaty, bloated, depressed woman who couldn’t understand why she couldn’t remember anything.” This vulnerable period made Yasmin reflect on her identity and what was important. She went on to say that a casual question about work threw her off-kilter: “it really unbalanced me. That made me sit up and think about what’s important to me, what identity is, and am I judging myself by other people’s standards, or am I judging myself by my standards?”
There was a reception into a more private life that brought Yasmin closer to her family. “My kids were the making of me, without them I would have remained an utterly useless human being with no drive and ambition.” Being a mother became the spark for her personal growth, urging her to face everyday challenges and find a renewed sense of purpose. She leaves a legacy for her children and grandchildren of values value, life lessons not a flow of material wealth. “But our kids are not inheriting anything! There is no trust fund,” she says. A decision that underscores the belief that the good stuff in life doesn’t come from money.
“I know it sounds like a tired cliché and we all have to pay the bills, and that it’s ripe coming from somebody who can pay the bills, but money really isn’t where the good stuff comes from in life.”
In an era where social media rules, Yasmin calls abound with criticism regarding the pressures piled on today’s models: “So much is asked of them. I want to turn around to companies and say, Are you going to pay me double because I’m doing a marketing job now as well? And how do you ever switch off now when every two minutes you’re thinking, Oh, that would make a good picture.”
The fact that Yasmin can have candid reflections over the chapter speaks a lot for her resilience and adaptability. With much humor and elan, she negotiates life’s odds now and discovers new definitions for herself outside the fringes of glamour and glitz which once defined her. Considering Yasmin Le Bon to be a strong role model, her story gives a heap of heart: real success is not in the world’s accolades but in the love and values passed on to the rising generation.